


You're mystery

by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 12:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8666662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Asked by pressuredrightnow via tumblr: A kept on bothering B with questions while A's reading a book. After some time, A was asked what their favorite book was. They answered the title of the book they were reading when B kept on asking questions. When asked what was their favorite part/line in the book, they answered a very boring line or scene, which confused the asker, and asked why. "Because that's the moment I realized I met the person I wanted to be with for the rest of my life"





	

The first time Emma saw Regina reading the plain-looking book had been during those first months on Storybrooke. The woman had been reading on her lunch hour on one of the benches outside the mayoral office and Emma had merely looked at her general direction before pretending to be called by some sheriff emergency before walking away. The sight, however, of the mercurial brunette reading peacefully while drinking hot-coffee on a to-go-mug was burnt on her mind and several days later when she saw the woman reading the same book again at one of Granny’s tables she had approached the brunette only to drop next to her with the sheriff badge on display.

“What are you reading madam mayor? New ways to fire me?”

The line had been lame but it had gotten the answer Emma had wanted and soon enough Regina’s dark chocolate eyes were on her, burning like ambers and about to spew vitriol on the blonde’s innocent-looking face.

“Not everything is about you, Sheriff Swan” The brunette had replied before returning to her reading and that had been the end of their conversation.

During the following days Emma had seen Regina with the book at several moments, always looking slightly further on her reading but never too much. The book wasn’t exactly thick and for that Emma assumed that it must be tedious enough to keep the control-freak Regina was completely immersed on it.

During her time at the enchanted forest she hadn’t had the possibility to see the brunette reading and after that and Neverland catching a moment of respite had been almost impossible. However, once Pan’s curse and everything after that was resolved the book returned and in one occasion, during their stake-out, Emma had seen Regina reading it with a farewell look on her eyes. Which in itself was strange enough and yet had made Emma’s chest feel warm and tingling. She had asked about it but Regina had never replied and it had soon become a sort of game between the two of them to discover the name of the book and for the brunette to hide it. Until Robin had happened of course. Then their game had been halted and the book had almost disappeared completely from Regina’s side.

It had taken Robin to disappear and Emma to declare herself a part of Operation Cobra for the book to reappear; looking decidedly worn out and read at least a dozen more times than the last time Emma had seen it. Regina had brought it to the Author’s house all those times when Emma had helped her in their fruitless try to find any clue on the blank books and even though Emma had looked at it and Regina had caught her a few times neither of them had exactly commented on it. Not until one day when the Queens of Darkness had already arrived and things were starting to go to shit.

Then, Emma half heartbroken and afraid of herself, with the memory of Cruella taunting her still fresh on her ears, had asked for Regina to tell her what the book was about. In that moment Regina had blinked softly for a few seconds before biting her bottom lip, almost looking about to do it under Emma’s gaze, the blonde completely transfixed by the older woman’s teeth, by the way her eyes shone through long eyelashes, by the way she knew she had fallen madly in love with her.

Regina hadn’t answer in that moment, nor she had after the Queens were defeated and the book, albeit quick glimpses, was kept away from Emma’s reach.

It hadn’t been until they had returned back from Camelot, with Emma as the Dark One and Henry’s hate framing her that Emma had returned back to Regina’s porch, the book visible on a seemingly forgotten cardboard box next to the garage door. She had almost wanted to go and read it but Regina had opened the door and it had been impossible. Emma hadn’t wanted to press but Regina hadn’t offered and the book, alongside with her regret, had accompanied her thoughts that night.

Once back from Hell, with Robin’s death still looming over them and searching for Henry, Emma had seen Regina stack the book on her purse, her hands caressing the spine of it once before pretending it hadn’t happened. The sight of the book had left a bittersweet taste on the blonde’s mouth and yet she had made a soft joke about it, almost expecting that this time Regina would crack.

The brunette had sighed and had looked at her with eyes that burnt and so close to her she could feel her lungs on fire as she tried not to move.

During the time of the Queen, when a part of Regina had been terribly gone from the brunette’s pupils, Emma had seen the book on the woman’s mansion, normally laying around, normally closed and yet close to the woman, as if a part of her wanted it next to her. It hadn’t been until Emma had kissed Regina senseless than she had finally felt a part of the brunette returning to the woman, the part Emma had discovered herself missing even if she didn’t quite get it, even if she didn’t quite understand it.

Still, the book had remained a mystery until a few months after that, once the city had returned to its normalcy and already settled on the idea of both Savior and Mayor together, when Emma had finally seen the already old-looking book on one of the shelves of Regina’s book study, innocent looking and as plain as it had once looked.

“Will you ever tell me what’s this?” She had asked, half-joking while grabbing the book and offering it to Regina, seated behind the desk and looking at her above black-rimmed glasses Emma found incredibly hot.

Regina had laughed and had asked her to open it.

“Grimm’s fairy tales” It read in a white, yellow at the edges, page.

“But this…?” Emma had looked at Regina, not understanding much of anything of it. “Why this? It’s full of inaccuracies! You always protest whenever we are seeing Disney!”

“Because it’s so sugary sweet and overly good that it gives me cavities.” Regina had replied while chuckling softly. “But you are right on your supposition. I don’t exactly like their take on our stories. As accurate as it can be in the darker side of the world we all lived in.”

“And then… why?”

“Because” Regina had replied softly, far too softly, on that voice that it still gave Emma flutters and need to kiss the other woman senseless. “When I was reading it at first was to find anything to help Henry see that I wasn’t the Evil Queen. I was afraid of losing him and I read as much as possible to prepare myself, to protect myself, to protect him.”

“But then.” She had continued after a self-degrading smile. “Then you came and I fell in love with you. It seemed that the closer I became of you the closer I needed that book close to me. And soon enough it became my secret, to have it near, to read it. Even with Robin, even… with everything. I was never able to let you go, or the book.”

Emma would say that she had already wanted to ask Regina’s hand in that moment but, truly, those words were the ones that made her kiss the brunette and ask her if she wanted to ever marry her.


End file.
